The Dilemma: A Her Choice Story

by Megan McCoy

  “No! I mean it! I won’t, OW! That hurt!”

  “Was supposed to,” he said calmly, and continued on in a slow but steady staccato. She twisted and squealed and then suddenly realized, he was spanking her to a tune. Yankee Doodle Dandy? Seriously?

  I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy, she could hum and almost giggle, if it didn’t hurt so much! Her dark hair flew against her eyes and almost up her nose. He was spanking her to music! Make him stop!

  Rhythm did not help the pain in her bottom, not one little bit! Neither did the fact she still had her jeans on. Damn the man had hard hands!

  “No!” she screeched.

  “Yes,” he said calmly. “I promise to always give you what you need.”

  “No more!” Liz was starting to feel desperate. It hurt too much. How could he do this to her? She didn’t deserve a spanking! She didn’t like this position, head down, bottom up, and no way to move her bottom out of the way of his hand.

  Wiggling hard, she tried to move off his lap, and moved her hand back to cover her bottom. Apparently he’d seen that move before though and grabbed her hand. She felt even more helpless than she had before. There was simply nothing she could do, he had complete control over her. If her bottom didn’t hurt so much, she’d think about that more. Right now, though she needed to convince him to stop, as panic overtook her. She couldn’t take this anymore!

  Once she began crying, large huge sobs and sniffles and hitching breaths, he immediately stopped and pulled her up and into his arms. She sobbed into his shoulder and he said nothing, just rubbed her back.

  Finally, she calmed down enough to say, through sniffles, “I’m not saying thank you.”

  His lips twitched, trying to hide a smile, “You want to though. Feel better?”

  “No! I don’t feel better! I hurt and my nose is running, and I want a tissue, and my butt hurts and now I’m all needing sex and I’m mad at you and…”

  Matt stood up, not putting her down, and cradled her in his arms, kissing her forehead. “You aren’t mad, honey, you’re horny. I can fix that.”

  “Well, crap. If you’d figured that out a few minutes ago, my butt wouldn’t be hurting right now,” leaning in, she kissed him as he carried her to the bedroom.

  Giggling, between sniffles, she told him, “You’re wet. We still have our raincoats on. Did you spank me over the raincoat?”

  “Nah, I moved it out of the way. Not into rubber,” he said, putting her down, and began to unzip her coat.

  “That’s not fair, mine unzips and yours pulls off over your head,” she complained.

  “Hey, you pouting again?” He grinned at her. “I have a cure for that, you know.”

  “Quite being mean and just take your clothes off, boy. Your woman has needs,” she commanded.

  “Yes, Ma’am,” he complied, pulling the rain poncho off over his head and then slowing unbuckling his belt while she watched in fascination. One day? Would he? Maybe. What was there about cowboys and leather that just made her…yum.

  “Race you.” He kicked out of his boots and started unbuttoning his shirt.

  She shimmied out of her raincoat, and pulled her t-shirt off, then dropped her bra and her jeans in one quick movement. Damn, her shoes. Leaning over, she untied her sneakers and then looked up at him standing there in all his naked glory. Ready and waiting for her. All righty then.

  “I win,” she breathed, staring at his cock, jutting out, proud and strong. Yeah.

  “Then you get the prize,” he said, grabbing her and falling onto the bed while she frantically still tried to kick out of her shoes and jeans. She deserved this prize!

  Chapter Six

  Candy stood up from her well organized desk and stretched, raising her arms over her head. It looked too pretty outside this morning after such a rainy day yesterday. She could take her tablet and go outside and work on schedules. A plan. Sensing something, without turning around, she said, “I hate it when you do that.”

  “What? Stand here and watch my gorgeous wife? No, you don’t.” Jeb said slowly with that air of confidence that turned her on so. Pivoting, she looked at him leaning against the doorjamb. That had been her very first sight of him, but in the cafeteria, where she had been giving a welcome message on her first day of work, not the door to the Lyon’s Den kitchen. He was hot in both places. Any place. To her, he was a much handsomer Sam Elliot. Tall, lean, dressed in his well-worn jeans, that fit him oh so perfectly, scuffed up boots and solid blue chambray shirt. Yum. She’d developed a crush on him the minute she saw him, but didn’t move on it for a long time. The man was her boss, after all.

  Still was. Blast him. Bless him. Running her fingers through her short blonde hair, she smiled at him. “What you up to?”

  “Thinking about bending you over that desk,” he replied. “That is why you keep it so clean, right?”

  He knew her too well.

  “It is, but Jade will be here to run the shop in a few minutes, and we both know you aren’t a minute man,” she teased, but really, thank goodness for that. She wasn’t a quickie kind of girl. Like the song said, she needed a man with a slow hand. He had both a slow and hard hand and knew just what she wanted when. Sometimes even when she didn’t know.

  “Well, I do have the door key,” he said.

  “And how much fun is it going to be for you with her standing outside banging on the door and blowing up our phones?” Candy retorted, smiling at him. Good thing he didn’t know how adorable he was.

  “Banging, blowing. You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” Jeb looked her up and down till she wanted to melt in a puddle.

  “Innocent me? Would I do that?” she teased. Was he going to take her or not? She and her husband were grownups and the bosses and not prone to showing off their moves, despite what Matt and Blaze might say differently. They both walked in on some playtime, separately, and that was plenty of showing off for her. She tried to play cool and collected in front of them, and everyone tried to act as if they didn’t know, but. Elephant in the room. What can you do? Ignore it and hope it goes away, some year.

  “The campers should be coming back this morning. Some of them are going to be upset about the schedule change, and some of the family member who didn’t go. Want to come help me smooth things over if it’s needed?” Jeb asked her.

  Wrinkling her nose at him, she said, “Of course I will. Soothing ruffled feathers is what I do best.”

  Jeb stepped closer to her, and ran his fingers through her spiked up hair, then grabbed a fistful, “No. It’s really not.”

  This time she didn’t even try not to melt. Luckily Jade arrived for her work shift just then or she would have had him on the desk. Or vice versa. Who cared about semantics when there was lovely male to be had?

  Had later, she reminded herself. Right now they were going to the barn and greeting the returning campers who were out one more night than they were scheduled to be. People got weirdly uptight about vacationing on a schedule. She didn’t understand it. Work was work, vacation was time off, and if something didn’t go quite as planned, just go with the flow.

  Many people didn’t flow, she’d found out early in her career. Her job was often to get them back to that flow as smoothly as possible. She grabbed a handful of vouchers for the local bar, in case she needed to appease some ruffled feathers with booze. Oddly enough, it worked really well often. Something upset you? Didn’t go as planned? Here, have a couple drinks on us! People melted as fast as she did when Jeb looked at her. Strange but true.

  They walked to the barn, hand in hand, and Candy felt so happy he was comfortable with that. A lot of alpha men weren’t, but he liked holding hands, snuggling and doing silly things like picking her a rose and showing up on horseback to take her on a quick ride. Of course, there were their boat rides. She first fell in love with him while he was rowing a boat and talking about his life. When he stood up for her, and saved her from an over aggressive ex, it just cemented that.

  Sure, while she conse
nted to the spankings he felt she needed, she wished he wouldn’t spank so darn hard. At least in the moment. After, well. Was what it was. She could take anything he gave her, because she knew he did it out of love.

  “Ready to face the lions, Mr. Lyon?” she teased as they got closer to the barn where she heard voices and horses.

  “I can do anything with you by my side,” he said, and her eyes teared up.

  Punching his arm, she said, “That was just mean, making me cry.”

  “Nah, it was just the truth,” he hugged her and held her a second, then they both took a deep breath and walked in to soothe the savages.

  * * *

  “Samuel Benjamin, I’m so glad to see you!” Liz held herself back from hugging him and kissing all over his face like she used to do when he was a baby. Studying him, he looked okay. Tired, but older, a bit. More mature. Had he grown up some in three days? She didn’t want him to, selfishly. He needed to stay her baby forever. Knowing that wasn’t going to happen, she decided she’d try and embrace the changes as they happened.

  Screw that. She grabbed his face and kissed it.

  “Mom!” He complained but didn’t push her away. She appreciated it. It was the little things, after all.

  “I missed you,” she said, pulling back. “Did you have a good time? Stay dry? Eat?”

  “Mom,” he pulled away. “I’ll tell you over dinner. I have to help with the horses now.”

  Trying not to feel hurt, Liz pulled back and watched him walk over to the horses. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Candy and Jeb walk in the barn. They went to where Blaze was trying to direct people in what to do with their horses, and packs while talking to a very upset man. From across the barn, she started walking closer and could see Blaze’s sigh of relief as he spied his saviors.

  “Miss Candy, Grandpa, this is Barry Lawrence. Mr. Lawrence, this is Jeb Lyon, the owner of Rose’s Ranch, and Candy Lyon, the general manager. Mr. Lawrence is unhappy that his daughter and son-in-law were gone a day longer than planned.” He motioned toward a young couple, the girl pregnant and the boy anxiously clutching her hand. “He was worried about Miss Tiffany, and isn’t pleased about the communication we had in place.” He stepped away as Candy stepped up and Liz could swear she saw him mouth ‘and go’ to her as she moved toward the unhappy grandpa-to-be. She tried not to let her lips twitch, knowing Candy could handle the situation and Blaze was glad to let her do it, as her eyes wandered to watch her son take the saddle and bags off his horse.

  Ben moved smoothly, as if he’d been doing this for a while. Once he had his horse in the stall and given her a quick brush, he moved to help someone else. Liz blinked furiously trying not to let tears fall, feeling so proud of her kid, doing what needed done and helping others. This camping trip had been so good for him, obviously. She watched Blaze come over and put his arm over Ben’s shoulder and Ben blossomed in delighted pride. Blaze pointed down the stall aisle, and Ben went off to help another camper. Blaze was good for Ben. The camping trip had been good for Ben and even though her butt had paid the price, she was very happy she’d not gone up to get him last night. This was something he’d needed and thrived on. A small weight lifted off her heart. She had a family for her boy where he was excelling and growing up. It was all she’d ever wanted, for him and for her.

  That night, after Ben had gone to bed early, exhausted and full of the chicken and rice she’d reheated, she laid on her back, touching her hot cowboy, and looked up at the ceiling. “Matt, I love it here. This is where I want my kid to grow up, to expand his horizons and be all he can be.”

  “I thought that was the Army,” Matt replied quietly.

  “It’s also Rose’s Ranch. You and Blaze were so lucky to grow up here. I want that for Ben,” she said, and turned to tuck herself under his arm. Yes, this is where she belonged. Now. She needed to get him to propose and make this legal. Her kid loved it here, and so did she. She loved her family, her two brothers and their women, but she also loved to be part of a community. Here, she had both. A family and a built in village to help her raise her kid. For the first time in many years, she felt safe. Felt like she had a home. Drifting off to sleep, she dreamed of a wedding on the ranch. It could happen. It really could.

  Maybe?

  * * *

  Matt rolled over once he heard Liz’s regular breathing and knew she was sound asleep. Staring at the bedside clock, ticking close to midnight, he wondered what the hell he was doing. He loved her. He knew he did. He wanted her with him, forever. Hell, he could see proposing here in the not too distant future. But there was this itch he had to leave. Travel. Live in a few new places. Apparently all she wanted, like Blaze, was to live here forever and never leave. He knew what that felt like, though. Kim had needed to leave. He let her go without a fight. He’d needed to stay at the time.

  Now, when he wanted to leave, he had a family to think of. Despite no ring on her finger, he thought of Ben and Liz as his family. They were, and when he asked her to move in with him, that made him responsible. He hadn’t wanted to raise another teenager after the not so fun years with Blaze, but he’d decided he could do it. He also asked Liz to come knowing she wanted a secure safe home to raise her kid the next few years.

  He was happy with her. He didn’t mind the kid, in fact, he’d grown on him. But, he still had this itch and wasn’t sure what to do about it.

  He rolled over again. Then got up, carefully and paced to the kitchen to get a beer. He needed to go for a walk. Or a boat ride. Like his dad, he did his best thinking on the water.

  Pulling on his jeans, boots, and a t-shirt, he headed down toward the lake, shutting the door quietly behind him. He didn’t need a flashlight, the moon was full and he’d been walking this path since, hell, since he could walk. He knew every rock and root and stumble along the way. Head down, he contemplated. What he needed to do was get back to contentment. He’d been happy for a lot of years here. He let his marriage break up because he couldn’t contemplate leaving. He just needed to get back to that state of mind.

  If travel was all he was craving, he could take Liz on a proper honeymoon over Christmas, or in January. Candy and his dad, or Eric and Holly would watch Ben a couple weeks. They could go on a cruise, or could travel to Europe, or whatever they chose. That thought made him feel a little better. That was only a few months away, and would give him something to look forward to. Then they could have some alone time to talk about the future and what they both wanted. Did he know of her dreams other than raising her kid in a stable environment? See, they had a lot to talk about.

  Feeling a little better, he stood on the path a minute, deciding if he wanted to go on the row boat or just go home and back to bed, when he heard footsteps behind him.

  “Matt?”

  His new mommy.

  “Candy, what are you doing out here in the middle of the night?” He turned and saw she had a flashlight and was dressed for a hike.

  “I just came down to sit on the bench by the lake a minute,” she hesitated. “Do you want to join me?”

  Because he couldn’t think of a reason not to, Matt said, “Sure. Had a touch of insomnia, how about you?”

  “Came to think,” she said, simply.

  “Me, too,” he confessed. “If you tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine.”

  “That sounds kind of naughty,” she half laughed.

  “Never naughty with my new mommy,” he teased. “I’ll always be a good boy.”

  They fell into a companionable stride as they walked to the bench by the lake. “I like it when you call me that,” she confessed. “Especially in front of the clients. It makes me feel like part of the family.”

  Matt looked at her, confused. “You are part of the family,” he said, slowly.

  “Well, legally, but you know how small towns are. People think I slept my way to the top or something, or that I don’t really love your dad. I don’t know what they think,” she almost wailed.

  Girls, they were all a
like, Matt thought but he patted her shoulder, and teased, “You did sleep your way to the top.”

  Turning, she blazed at him, “I did not! I had the job first and the man second!”

  “That’s true,” he said soothingly. “I just meant, because of that… hell, I don’t know what I mean. All I know is everyone thinks my dad is damn lucky to have you.”

  “He is. I’m good at my job and trying my best to be a great wife,” she said, only slightly mollified.

  “So why are you down here to think in the middle of the night?” He asked, as they both settled on the wooden bench.

  “I just got a job offer,” she said. “I’m not taking it, but, you know, it was nice to be asked, and there was a minute or two when I thought how much fun it would be.”

  “You’d leave here?” he asked. This was new information.

  “Oh no, heck no! I love it here. I’d never leave your dad, or the ranch for very long, ever. This was just a short-term offer. My old company is looking for another few people to fill in for vacations. They send someone in, especially to struggling hotels when the GM goes on vacation. They asked if I’d be interested. I’m not, but it just gave me a little zing, you know. Great to know they still remember me, and it’s kind of flattering, but I’m not leaving. I just needed to walk off some nerves.”

  “Bet dad would have been glad to have a board meeting with you,” he half teased. His dad often called the boat rides he took his wife and kids on ‘board meetings’ and you were lucky if the board didn’t meet your butt when the ride was over. He’d learned to use his words, and make arguments growing up, just so that never happened, or happened rarely, at least.

  “Oh, I’m not telling your dad I was even offered. I don’t want him thinking I want to go, then him pressuring me to do what makes me happy, when I already know what makes me happy,” she said.

  Matt didn’t like that. He wouldn’t want Liz keeping secrets from him. The one time he found out she did, was her first punishment paddling. He didn’t want Candy to have one of those and he knew his dad would.